Ireland’s Paschal Donohoe has been elected as the new Eurogroup President, replacing Portugal’s Mario Centeno. He beat out Spanish minister Nadia Calviño, who had the favourable support of the countries accounting for 80% of the Eurozone’s GDP, including Germany, France and Italy.
The euro’s fourth biggest economy will not be the protagonist in long economic debates in 2017. Spain’s deficit and its domestic politics are no longer a concern for Brussels, now focused on the Brexit negotiations and worried about the complicated elections cycle in various countries.
MADRID | June 11, 2015 | By Francisco López | The appointment of Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos as president of the Eurogroup was a sure bet until the Dutch finance minister and current Eurogroup chief said he will stand for the post again. Possibly affected by this bad news, Mr De Guindos made a very unfortunate intervention about the Spanish banking sector’s restructuring.